Sunday, December 20, 2009

There has been no shortage of books about 'the North' over the years, and I own quite a few of them.Have to say I'm really enjoying Martin Wainwright's book at the moment now - full of great images as well as anecdotes and information about the changing nature of the North...A nice AUDIO SLIDESHOW on the Guardian website.There are quite a few in the Guardian's TRAVEL section too...

Remember that if you're a GA member, you can download the last 5 years issues of the journal(s) you subscribe to.

I'll be trailing some elements of the lecture over at the LOOK AT LANDSCAPES blog in the next few months. Also plan to write the lecture up and produce a resource that other colleagues can use on the meaning of "place"...

There'll be plenty on the cultural aspects of place, and have been reading the relevant sections of Jon Anderson's Cultural Geography text...

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The idea is to record our perspective on our urban lives and habitat through an online stream of tweets that describe urban events and experiences as they happen.

By the end of the urban day we will have created a collaborative narrative - a descriptive portrait of urban life..

To take part all you need is:1. The ability to Tweet (www.twitter.com)2. To be in an urban area on Saturday 9th January 20103. To include #utday in each of your related tweets

We'll then be able to search the tweets to reveal our story.

Please do spread the word around, the more of us the better.. and leading up to the day, add the URBAN TWEET DAY Twibbon to your Twitter profile picture. If you don't already, you can follow us on Twitter here.

Has a lovely clear introduction on the importance of culture in our lives, and a range of fascinating chapters. I wanted to sit there and read it rather than get on with what I was supposed to be doing. Available for just under £20 from Amazon. What's nice is the relationship between the cultural forms and PLACE.

The book begins by saying "We live in a world of cultural places... we contribute to it every day and night."

Context is vital of course with culture, and I use the word a lot when describing the work that teachers do...

Cultural geography tries to explore "the intersections of context and culture. It asks why cultural activities happen in particular ways in particular contexts."

Thursday, December 10, 2009

An interesting article in Friday's TES on a plan by Stephen Heppell to open up a school in Rotherham: my home town.

The school is, interestingly, going to be located in an empty department store in the town centre...

Stephen Heppell suggests that the layout of shops is more suited to modern teaching approaches than classrooms, and avoided the idea of "cells and bells". Similar schemes are already in operation in other countries, including the US and New Zealand.

A quote that struck a chord:

"Rotherham's a nice place, but when you walk through it, it's quite sad because whole streets are boarded up. When Burger King had gone there was a sign in the window saying 'Nothing of value left in these premises' - and I tried to imagine what had ever been there of value..."

This was suggested as being a useful use of the freehold for shops: if it's handed over for a few year's the building will be maintained and heated.

Another phrase that was used in the article is one I used at a few events recently: the 'Dick Turpin' model of teaching: "stand and deliver"....

I like the idea of changing the relationship between the former shop and the town centre, and locating a school in that place is going to offer lots of potential for the students to become urban explorers.

There is also another article here (with thanks to Twitter @Rothbiz) which mentions the "Meanwhile Project"

This sounds a little like the Empty Shops project in Worthing which my colleague David Rogers is involved with for Mission : Explore

What is this blog about ?

Cultural Geography featured on the now-ex Pilot GCSE Geography Specification - that was my introduction to this area of geography. This blog started out featuring my findings, resources and images as I produced resources when teaching this unit for the first time. Some readers may disagree with what I call 'cultural geography' but I'm still relatively new to all this...

Some of the early content stems from ideas by Dr. Phil Wood , Senior Lecturer in Geographical Education at the University of Leicester.

The blog has now morphed into a general place to blog about geography and popular culture, as well as social science, mapping and a range of other cultural items of interest.